Orange County’s best public high schools outperform their peers across the state in almost every measurable testing category, promote rigorous academics and prepare students for college and careers.

So say nearly three dozen performance measures culled from massive state databases about 64 local comprehensive high schools.

The Orange County Register’s education team pored over these measures to calculate its 2009 Best Public School rankings. The best schools are honored with gold, silver and bronze medals.

A report on elementary schools kicked off the 2009 rankings, followed by a report on middle schools. Today concludes our work on the overall rankings.

With high schools, college and careers are a major factor, and so our assessments add a dimension to assess how well schools prepare students to take those next steps, how they help students step into the adult world.

As with any measurement, the numbers don’t always tell the full story. Intangible factors are crucial to a school’s success. And so this package includes not just an extensive database, but articles about some of Orange County’s best schools.

Who’s the best: New measures rocket cluster of schools into county’s elite performers.

More Top 10 profiles: Six of 2008’s top 10 schools maintain a spot on the list. In addition to Oxford Academy, the returning schools are Troy, Northwood, University, Orange County High School of the Arts, and Middle College. Check out our earlier profiles on those schools.

Our high school database provides rankings based on a mix of academics, career/college preparation and campus environment for these 64 schools. Gold medals go to those achieving 70 percent or better, silver medals for those achieving 65 percent and above, and bronze medals for those ranking 60 percent and better.

Our methods: In ranking schools, we assess a series of hand-selected academic and school environment categories from state Department of Education databases. We then give certain categories specific weight to ensure the final picture provides the most accurate depiction of campus quality. See the measures we chose and how we stressed their importance. Also see notes on where state data might be lacking.

GreatSchools: The Orange County Register partners with GreatSchools.net, a nonprofit Web site that provides a forum for parent comments about specific campuses. Click on the header to access our GreatSchools search tool, a doorway to additional numbers and data about your neighborhood school.

The Register launched its first-ever rankings of public middle and elementary schools in March, awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the best at each level.

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